Carlos Rueda
Education
- Ph.D. Architecture History and Theory, McGill University (ARCC Medal), 2009
- M.ArchII. Housing (post-professional program), McGill University, 2001
- Graduate Diploma in Aestheitcs, Universidad Javeriana, 1999
- Estudios de Maestría en Historia del la Arquitectura (post-professional), UNAL, 1994-96
- B.Arch. (5-year professional program), Universidad de los Andes, 1989
Professional accreditation
Professional and Creative Practice
Licensed Architect by the CPNAA, Colombia since 1992, Carlos Rueda keeps a critical practice with his firm Monumental: http://www.monumental.com.co
Dr Rueda in parallel develops creative projects that explore questions of method related to the poetics of material imagination and the representation of place and landscape. His work along this line is situated at the crossroads between phenomenology of place, cognitive studies, and theories in the art of poetry in literature: https://www.crearchitect.com
Scholarship
- Critical theory and history of modern and contemporary architecture in situations of ‘periphery’, hybridity and transculturation with an emphasis on Latin America and the Mediterrranean
- Pre-modern, and other than Western architecture (Pre-Hispanic and indigenous in particular)
- Design process and questions of creative method (or generative processes) of architectural works, with parallels between architecture, poetry, and cognitive studies
- Studies on place and landscape from a phenomenological perspective
Current research and publications
Dr Rueda’s overarching topic is theorizing architectural practice in a global context of hybrid cultures and providing an understanding of the contemporary in such context. It is a concern in continuity and dialogue with theories about critical practice in conditions of ‘periphery’ and what W. Curtis labelled “the diversification of the modern tradition.” For the purpose, it comprises historic and theoretical components since contemporary phenomena and problems are not without reason or precedent.
“Para-Doxa: The Poetics of Historicity and Tradition in Contemporary Architecture” with an initial set of case studies in South America, and the Mediterranean:
- Brazil: From Lina Bo Bardi to Marcelo Ferran; Paulo Mendes to Angelo Bucci (SPBR) and Alvaro Siza’s Ibere Camargo Foundation, Brazil/Portugal context of interinfluences.
- Colombia: From Dicken to Lorenzo Castro (tension between tradition and innovation); Rogelio Salmona and Juan P. Ortiz (syndetic approaches to the local)
- Portugal & Spain: Fernando Tàvora to Alvaro Siza (syndesis of vernacular iberian, modern, and North-African traditions); Rafael Moneo to José Linazasoro (on ruins and contemporaneity)
- Greece: Dimitri Pikionis and Aris Kostantinidis, to emerging practices like Iason Tsironis
“Place at the Threshold of Being: Unsettling Dimensions in the Search for Meaning in Austerlitz”:
- A book chapter in an interdisciplinary (education and architecture) collection of essays on W.G. Sebald to be published in Unsettling Complacency, Hope and Ethical Responsibility in the Writing of W. G. Sebald. (Warren Crichlow co-editor):
https://www.chrflagship.uwc.ac.za/fellowship-programme/fellows/warren-crichlow/
Sendas de la Modernidad III: Paisaje y Espacio Colectivo en la Fundación Cristiana de Vivienda de Rogelio Salmona (Paths of Modernity III: Landscape and Collective Space in Fundación Cristiana de Vivienda by Rogelio Salmona):
- A bilingual book on critical history of architecture (a micro-narrative) focused in an early work by Rogelio Salmona (1964) as it gives evidence of relevant concerns with the necessity of producing a qualitative experiential landscape in the context collective housing design.
“Worlds: prefigured place-worlds as elaboration on questions of method”:
https://www.crearchitect.com/imaginary-worlds
Research contributions
Thesis and Reports
“Place-Making as World Re-creation: an Experiential Tale of Rogelio Salmona’s Places of Obliqueness and Desire.” PhD dissertation, McGill University, 2009.
“Loft Story: A New American Dream.” Research report submitted to the School of
Architecture of McGill University to opt for the Master of Architecture (Post-Professional), August 2001.
Books
Edited Books
Memorias del XII Seminario Internacional de la Facultad de Arquitetura y Artes 2018: Eficiencia + Experiencia/ XII International Symposium of the Faculty of Architecture and Arts: Efficiency + Experience, (Editor with Rodrigo Velasco Gomez, Diego Chavarro Ayala and Juanita Botero Lopez), Bogotá: Editorial Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2018. (Bilingual)
Sindesis III /Syndesis III: Arquitectura, lugar y paisaje/Architecture, Place, and Landscape (Editor and Coauthor with Ricardo Castro and Eduardo Aquino), Bogotá: Editorial Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2018 (ISBN 978-958-8957-69-2). (Bilingual)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv7fmff4
Sindesis II /Syndesis II: Arquitectura, lugar y paisaje/Architecture, Place, and Landscape (editor and coauthor with Robert Mellin and Ricardo Castro), Bogotá: Editorial Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2016 (ISBN 978-958-8957-34-0). (Bilingual)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8j5p3
Syndetic Modernisms I /Modernismos Syndeticos I (editor and coauthor with Robert Mellin and Ricardo Castro), Bogotá: Editorial Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2012 (ISBN 978-958-8537-43-6). (Bilingual) https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/10682772
Building Identities in Place /Construyendo identidades en el lugar, Bogotá: Editorial
Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2012 (ISBN 978-958-8537-52-8). (English summary)
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18d83wr
Meeting Elia Zenghelis /Encuentro con Elia Zenghelis (editor and interviewer), Bogotá:
Editorial Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2012 (ISBN 978-958-8537-44-3)
Un viaje a Hellas (editor and prologuer), Bogota: Editorial Universidad
Piloto de Colombia, 2013 (ISBN 978-958-8537-42-9) (Spanish)
https://www.unipiloto.edu.co/un-viaje-a-hellas/
Chapters in Books
“Place at the Threshold of Being: Unsettling Dimensions in the Search for Meaning in Austerlitz” in Unsettling Complacency, Routledge (forthcoming)
Rueda Carlos, Uribe Adriana and German Ramirez. “After the Dogma: The Modern Path of Dicken Castro.” Paths of Modernity II: the Architectural Sources and Paths of Gabriel Serrano and Diken Castro. Bogota: Editorial Unipiloto. 2017. (Bilingual) https://www.amazon.com/Gabriel-Serrano-Dicken-Castro-Arquitectura-ebook/dp/B07K25G663
“Vida Después de la Muerte de las Grandes Ciudades Norteamericanas: Encuentros y
Desencuentros de Jane Jacobs con Lewis Mumford” (in) Textos 26: Documentos de historia y teoría. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Facultad de Artes, 2016.
http://www.maachistoriayteoria.unal.edu.co/publicaciones/coleccion-textos-26
“Place as a World of Experience; a Phenomenological Excursus” Written in Montreal: Texts in and about Place (Carlos Rueda ed., and Spanish Translator.) Bogota: Editorial Unipiloto (2015), 19-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv8j5j9
“In a place of Baroque Obliqueness: tale and theory of an experience” in Syndetic
Modernisms 1, (Carlos Rueda, editor and series director), Bogotá: Editorial
Universidad Piloto de Colombia, 2012, (pp. 123-159) https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt18d83v7
“The Making of Place, in the Realm of Imagined Realities” in The P R Book
Alberto Perez-Gomez (editor) - History and theory of Architecture, Montreal: McGill University, 2002
“Culture and Place in Latin American Architecture: From Dialectic, Treatises to Hybrid
Fictions.” Published in the proceedings of the Transcultural Architecture in Latin America, Felipe Hernandez (editor) London: UCL, University of London, University of Nottingham, Bartlett School of Architecture, 2001
Periodicals and Journals
“From the Culture of Building To Building Culture: Rogelio Salmona in the context of Baukultur,” Intertwining – Baukultur – 2 – 2019
http://mimesisinternational.com/intertwining-baukultur-2-2019/
“Re-creación e Historicidad en el Cedazo de la Modernindad: La Casa de Huespedes Ilustres de Rogelio Salmona.” 2016. Revista Nodo, 10 (21), 9-21.
https://revistas.uan.edu.co/index.php/nodo/article/view/788
“Perfect Seven.” 2016. Border Crossings: 138 (35) 2. https://bordercrossingsmag.com/magazine/issue/issue-138
“Cuestiones de método creativo. Metamorfosis y conciencia material en los procesos creativos en arquitectura.” 2014. Revista de Arquitectura, 16, 58-67. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5263290.pdf
“Las utopías urbanas americanas: entre la universal horizontal/vertical y lo global
digital.” (Carlos Rueda, translator, original text in Portuguese) by Goncalo Furtado. 2011. Revista Alarife No 22, págs. 8-19. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/3861116.pdf
“Hacer lugar como construcción de realidades imaginarias.” 2011. Revista Alarife No 21, págs. 48-59. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277268884_Hacer_lugar_como_construccion_de_realidades_imaginarias
“En un lugar oblicuo para el deseo: paralelos barrocos y teoría de una vivencia”.
The Hispanic Baroque, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. See: http://baroque-identities.mcgill.ca/Congrad/Rueda_pon.pdf
“Edificio ‘La Loma ’ Colombia, Carlos Rueda Arquitecto.” 1998. Revista Escala (181)
Multifamiliares-Otras Tipologías: 30-32.
“Edificio ‘Mirador del Cerro’, Colombia, Carlos Rueda Arquitecto,” 1997. Revista Escala (181) Multifamiliares Mediano Formato: 30-32.
“Acerca del concepto de hibridación en la arquitectura Latinoamericana/The Idea of
Hybridization in Latin American Architecture.” 1995. Proa, (425) SAL VII, Reflexiones desde Colombia: 34-44.
Academic Administration and Leadership
Highlights of achievements during my tenure as Architecture Department Head (2015-2020)
CACB Accreditation: in 2015 Dr. Rueda received a department in human resource and governance crisis and 3-year accreditation term. In 2018 regained 6-year, full accreditation following curricular improvements, increase and rejuvenation of the human resource, a collaborative harmonious environment and improved governance and at all levels. From the Visiting Team Report (VTR):
The CACB Visiting Team visited a professional program that had undertaken a significant self- assessment and organizational repair following the accreditation visit of 2015. The Team was pleased to find that decisions made by the University, the Faculty and the Department of Architecture have resulted in plans for action well on their way to completion and that have stabilized the environment in which students learn and are taught. Teaching faculty are collegial and productive and support staff are respected and engaged. Students continue to work hard and do good work. The physical facilities, traditionally a strength of the Faculty, have been refreshed and expanded. The profession has become more engaged.
C.A.S.T: Reactivation of the Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.):
Successful appointment of a new C.A.S.T. Coordination Technician, residing in the Department of Architecture; collaborative projects with top institutions such as Philip Beesley’s Living Architecture Systems Group; funding from and collaborations with the industry like the Canadian Precast Prestressed Concrete Institute (CPCI) and the Manitoba Masonry Industry (MMI); reestablishment of the Research in Residence Program
Faculty Search and Hiring: Carlos arrived following the resignation of three full-time senior Faculty members and we achieved successful hiring of four new ones. I feel specially glad to have been instrumental in recruiting devoted educators and passionate practioners and researchers like my colleagues Neil Minuk, Shawn Bailey and Mercedes Garcia-Holguera and have secured Shawn’s Indigenous position Scholar cross-appointed with the Faculty of Engineering within our department.
Physical Plant and Facilities Renewal: we were granted funds for over $1,5 million and executed a renovation and expansion of our studio spaces, under the leadership of Professor Eduardo Aquino and the collaborative work of the DoA.
Environmental Design Program Advisory Committee (EDPAC): as part of EDPAC we restructured and improved the Environmental Design Program
Collaboration with the City Planning Department: Richard Milgrom and Carlos Rueda put into practice an interdisciplinary urban design studio, already in its fourth version, which has brought together relevant stake holders and participated of two downtown design charrettes, one ion the occasion of the visit and including the participation of Jan Gehl, on the subject: “livable cities for the XXI Century” https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/civicelection2018/put-people-first-architect-tells-city-planning-conference-493776401.html